The second stage of the community visioning process kicks off this Saturday morning, Dec. 12, at 10 a.m. in the Yellow Springs High School gym, and it is not a meeting to miss, according to organizers. The 855 ideas generated by community members in the first round of public workshops stand sorted into 14 topic categories. Now, villagers and Miami Township residents are invited to help discern goals from these raw ideas that everyone can agree to move forward with.

The future of Yellow Springs. Imagine it, come together on what it should be, then build the community that villagers agree they would like to be a part of. It may sound daunting, but Village Council, three Miami Township Trustees, 35 local volunteer leaders, and a professional consultant group with 20 years of experience are literally banking on a visioning process to carry Yellow Springs and Miami Township into the next successful phase. They believe this process can work, and they want to hear your version of a vision for the community.

At a work session Monday, May 26, local leaders took the first steps to kick off a community-wide nine-month visioning project. The effort begins with three months of preparation before the first public event.

At their Feb. 17 meeting, members of Village Council approved two firms as finalists for the job of leading the village in a visioning effort. The finalists are ACP Visioning and Planning of Columbus and a collaboration of the New Mexico-based Regenesis Group and Kinzelman Kline Gossman in Columbus.

The repair of roads and sidewalks, the purchase of security and police equipment and the funding of a visioning process were the most expensive 2009 Village general fund capital projects proposed by Manager Mark Cundiff at a recent budget planning workshop.